Sony may not drop the price this year *gasp* why should they? They're selling as many consoles as they have ever sold in the history of the PS3. Why lose money for the sake of the fanboy epeen?

Frankly, I don't see the need for a hardware price drop from SCE until YoY sales reflect clear losses in demand at current prices and or revised design/manufacturing processes allow the hardware to be produced at lower prices.

That said, a $50 price drop isn't out of the question for 2012. Of course, SCE may just go again with the "increased value" bundling by throwing in a game, movie, controller, whatever at current prices instead.

Under $200 won't happen until there is a complete hardware redesign of the PS3 that is likely to look and feel like a $200 PS3. Or maybe it will just look like little domed Wii.

This year, it's pretty obvious.

2012 likely

I don't think that it will happen so quickly. I can see a $50 price cut this year or next, but a $100?

This.  A $249 SKU is inevitable this year, announced either at E3 or TGS.  It'll be 2 years since the last cut and they will have undoubtedly have cut down the production costs by the end of this year to still make a small profit off of the PS3 at that price.  And a $199 should be here by the end of fiscal 2013.  By then they should have production costs down enough to either break even or make a small profit on each sold.

Though, I have full faith that a $249 entry price for the PS3 for the last quarter of this year will definitely be the final push the PS3 needs to claim the number 2 spot this gen.

If PS3 keeps selling strong then we wont see it for quite some time.

Heck look @ the gap and how much it sells weekly @ $299 price point.

I'm a little concerned that people actually think it's feasible for Sony to do it this year. That would mean that Sony would be selling two systems (PS3 and NGP) at a lose at the same time. It would be a boot to the balls to Sony's profitability in regards to the playstation brand.

And then it'll drop to $49 in 2438 as well, completing it's many year plan!

They'll fly off the shelves at that price! 

Damn good point

Let's hope not, for the sake of my bet